President Trump signed unconditional pardons onstage for Alaska diesel mechanics hit by Biden-era Clean Air Act cases and declared every federal permit ready for a major natural gas pipeline.
At a midterm rally in Wasilla on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump called two diesel mechanics onto the stage at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center and signed clemency papers in front of the crowd.
Fox News Digital reported that Trump identified Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming, co-owners of the Anchorage shop Arm Rippin Toys, and said he was giving unconditional pardons to three men total, including an earlier grant for Wasilla diesel shop owner Mackenzie “Mac” Spurlock.
Trump framed the move as a direct fix for what he cast as unfair Biden-era prosecutions against men who kept trucks running in Alaska’s extreme cold.
One of the men thanked him from the stage and described the toll.
"It really did destroy us. It destroyed friendships. It destroyed families,"
Trump answered with the pardon power on the spot.
"I'm giving each one of the three an unconditional pardon,"
He signed while the crowd watched.
Federal prosecutors under the Biden Justice Department charged the Arm Rippin Toys co-owners after they admitted removing federally required emissions-control equipment and tampering with monitoring devices on at least 37 diesel vehicles between July 2019 and September 2020.
The shop collected about $100,000 for the work, prosecutors said at the time. Czubak and Fleming pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act.
Trump rejected that enforcement approach. He said the mechanics’ work kept trucks operating when Alaska weather turned brutal, and he treated the cases as overreach against working people rather than a public-safety win.
He also took a jab at his predecessor while holding the pen.
"So I'm going to sign this now, something that Joe Biden would be unable to do because he was unable to sign his signature,"
Then he added a personal note.
"What an honor. I love doing this stuff,"
The pardons sat inside a larger energy pitch. Trump told the Wasilla audience that every necessary federal permit for a long-awaited 800-mile natural gas pipeline had been secured.
He put it in plain terms for builders and investors.
"Every single permit that you need, you can start tonight,"
And he repeated the claim:
"Every single permit that you need has been granted."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for more detail on the project’s federal permitting status. No further response appeared in the initial reporting.
The rally itself was staged ahead of next month’s midterms, with Trump tying clemency, energy production, and Alaska infrastructure into one night of stagecraft.
The core cast was small and concrete. Trump. Two Anchorage mechanics brought onstage. A third Wasilla shop owner already pardoned. A Biden-era Clean Air Act conspiracy case. A shop that modified dozens of diesels and took in roughly $100,000. An 800-mile pipeline Trump said could move immediately.
Prosecutors had treated emissions hardware and monitoring devices as non-negotiable. Trump treated the same facts as a reason to wipe the slate clean for men who kept freight and equipment moving in the Last Frontier.
He signed in public. He named the men. He linked the pardons to a broader claim that federal permitting no longer stands in the way of Alaska energy build-out.
When federal power lands on diesel shops that keep trucks alive in deep cold, voters notice who sides with the rulebook and who sides with the wrench.
